More on the question of whether accounting antedated writing

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MORE ON THE QUESTION OF WHETHER
ACCOUNTING ANTEDATED WRITING
by
Louis Goldberg
Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia
Among the many interesting items that appear
in The Accounting Historians Notebook, the
question in the Spring issue, "Did Accounting
Antedate Writing?" was of particular interest to
me.
This question has been asked before, and
answered in a virtual affirmative. The eminent
archaeologist, the late Professor V. Gordon Childe,
in his popular work "What Happened in History"
(Pelican Books 1942) wrote as follows in relation to
the invention of writing in ancient Sumer (p. 92):
" . . . perpetual corporations of priests found
themselves charged with the heavy task of
administering the unprecedented accumulations of
wealth belonging to the Sumerian deities. The
administration by such corporations of the temples'
revenues on behalf of a divine master required the
keeping of accurate records of all receipts and
expenditures; a god's servants must be able to give
account of their stewardship. The record must be
intelligible not only to the official who made it,
but to his successor and all the partners in the joint
undertaking. No private system of reminders like
the knot in the handkerchief was any use. The head
of the brewery must note down what quantities of
barley he received and how much beer and of what
strength he delivered and note it in symbols that
not only reminded him of something, i.e., meant
something to him, but meant the same thing to his
successor, to the controller of the granaries and to
other colleagues."
"The invention of a system of writing was just
the agreement on the meanings to be attached to
the symbols by the society using them for the
common ends."
It is also worth noting that the philosopher,
Alfred North Whitehead, is recorded as saying
(Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, Mentor
Books, 1959, p. 126): ". . . for a long time after
writing had been invented it was little more than a
keeping of accounts; a business of kings and
bankers, promulgating orders and computing
moneys."
Perhaps I might be forgiven for mentioning that
I did attempt to introduce accountants to these
sources some fifteen years ago in my "An Inquiry
into The Nature of Accounting" (AAA
Monograph No. 7, 1965, pp. 131 ff.), and perhaps
some other readers may wish to ascertain whether
the views advanced by these two eminent scholars
(from different fields) would now represent a
generally accepted attitude among present-day
archaeologists and prehistorians.
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